Two Letters in One

3-10-13

Hey!  So I’ve been in a three-way companionship and one of the elders was going home. It was actually pretty hard to focus! He was always talking about home and it makes it hard when the only contact we have with family is through letters. Right now my companion, Elder Templeton, is the man. He goes home in four weeks and we are killing it and focused.

With the new age change announcement given at the last general conference, we are seeing changes in the mission. Right now we have two gun sisters in our zone and its all good but get this… there are 16 sisters coming into the mission next transfer. Things are changing.

Our zone is going good! We had a good Zone meeting this last week and a lot of missionaries are on board with us…we are united. As Zone Leaders we definitely don’t have as much time as we used to to find but its still all good and we have had a good week. We got some new investigators, set some bd dates and all is going well.

Wow okay pause... so this is now two weeks later since I wrote the first half of this email. I'm sorry I've been so busy! So I'm actually emailing Sunday night right now too! We are emailing at the office with the assistants because we are going to Kalgoorlie tomorrow which is about 7 hours inland on train... pretty awesome! We get to go do some fellowshipping out there and it’s going to be fun as!

We had a really good week this week. We had a great lesson with one of our investigators and we invited her to church. Well today she came and I felt like I was on top of the moon. The sad part is that the two people that gave talks in church today, spoke on doctrine that would be hard to get without understanding the principles of Christ’s gospel. It was frustrating. After sacrament we texted her and she said it was interesting and she would read the Book of Mormon and get back to us.

Anyways, I’ll fill you in on a voice message later.

Keep the Faith,
Elder Cook

Satan's cops are out there. Haha, No it was under my OWN agency.

2-20-13

Hey Family! Sorry; I got your email but this week I only got half way through responding... I was really busy with transfers so it was hectic.. but I'll finish it on Monday. 

So the reason I'm sending this is because today we were late to an appointment with a couple of non-members so as you do when you're late, you kinda tend to speed.... :( yeah I got a ticket. I was going 20 over. but this is in kilometers per hour. I got a big ticket so heads up on the bank account and sorry for the wrong doings; it took a blow.

Keep the faith .. 

Elder Cook

This is the quote I've been motivating myself with lately: "Great missionaries don't work because they are motivated and inspired. Greta missionaries are motivated and inspired because they work."

The more I learn on my mission the more I see how Satan is so involved in this work and it really is a blessing! Knowledge is Power.

2-24-13

Yes the ticket was a good humbling experience!

I'm sorry to hear about Uncle Frank, I'm proud of Dad being a missionary. He has so much power with his soft spoken ways. He has always been a great example.

so sorry about all the short responses my companion and I ate something last night and we've been up all night throwing up! It was some sad stuff!! My companion is still back in the flat, so I'm on splits with Elder Butts. I just really wanted to come email even though I feel pretty cactus. This week was awesome though. 

We set a few baptism dates and had 4 investigators to church so it was a good week. Again, sorry for the short letter. I gotta go sleep.

Love you heaps :)

Elder Cook

 

Bunbury - My New Area

2-3-13

Hey Family! I thought I would make a voice recording for you since you guys haven’t heard from me in ages and that’s sad, I know. I haven’t made one of these in a while but I’ll spare a moment before we leave to go write emails and cook one up for you. 

Anyways, I’m in Bunbury now. It’s only about 50 kilometers above where I used to be. This area is sweet and the ward is really awesome. There are beautiful beaches here that are always fun to look at. We also have tons of caves to look at whenever. That’s one of the blessings of a Zone Leader I guess, we get to go wherever we want. Most of all, the members here actually want to do missionary work and that is awesome! Our area is the bomb for missionary work. 

I don’t really know what you want to hear but I’m going to have Elder Templeton Introduce himself:

“Hi, my name is Elder Templeton, I’m from Hamilton NZ. It’s a beautiful place; more beautiful than Western Australia.”

So that was my fellow Zone Leader Elder Templeton. We also have another companion who goes home in two weeks, Elder Kennage…he’s brushing his teeth right now…

“Hello Cook Family, my name is Elder Kennage. I’m serving with Elder Cook at this moment. He’s a really good missionary and a funny guy. You should be proud of your son, he’s the man.”

Elder Kennage is Maori… no he’s Samoan but he lives in New Zealand. Yep, those are the people I live with everyday. Everyday, everyday, everyday as Elder Pearson says. 

Well, we’ll talk to you later,

Elder Cook

No One Makes Those Choices Except YOU!

1-30-13

Hey!

Australia is great! So many people are prepared and I’m fully pumped to go teach them!

A lot of stuff has happened this week. I found out what a mission truly can be and how you can change for forever and truly become a man of God! I can be everything I desire as long as I choose to become that person. No one makes those choices except you! The power of agency makes or breaks true conversion.

Much love. Be a disciple of Christ,

Elder Cook